"Vulgar Latin" is a blanket term covering the vernacular dialects of
the Latin language spoken mostly in the western provinces of the
Roman Empire, starting from the second and third century CE, until
its direct merging with the early Romance languages in the ninth
century. This spoken Latin differed from the literary language of
classical Latin in its pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some
features of Vulgar Latin did not appear until the late Empire. Other
features are likely to have been in place in spoken Latin, in at
least its basilectal forms, much earlier. Our knowledge of Vulgar
Latin comes from three chief sources. First, the comparative method
can reconstruct the underlying forms from the attested Romance
languages, and note where they differ from classical Latin. Second,
various prescriptive grammar texts from the late Latin period condemn
linguistic errors that Latin users were likely to commit, providing
insight into how Latin speakers used their language. Finally, the
solecisms and non-Classical usages that occasionally are found in
late Latin texts also shed light on the spoken language of the writer.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgar_Latin
Today's selected anniversaries:
1810 The first Oktoberfest was held in Munich.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest)
1960 Nikita Khrushchev became enraged at a United Nations
conference and told the Filipino delegate that he was "a
jerk, a stooge and a lackey of imperialism."
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev)
1999 A military coup in Pakistan led by General
Pervez Musharraf ousted the government of Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervez_Musharraf)
2002 A terrorist bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali killed
202 people.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_terrorist_bombing)
Wikiquote of the day:
"I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something
inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to
do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in
me. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that
unites all life, everything that is on this planet." ~ Wangari
Maathai
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wangari_Maathai)